Over the past week or so I’ve been thinking about everything I’m thankful for. Shame on me.
The list starts off noble enough: Family, friends, health. But from there it goes downhill to things like food that does more than provide sustenance, shelter that doesn’t just keep the rain off my head, my car (make that plural), etc.
There was a woman in the Bible who gave everything she had. It wasn’t much, because she didn’t have much. But Jesus said that in reality, it was more than anyone else had given, because of what it meant to her. I can learn something about thankfulness from that woman, and from a few others I know who are sacrificially generous.
These people seem to know a secret. They are more thankful for what they are able to give than for what they have been able to get. That’s the path I want to travel.
During one of the seasons of my Christian life, I attended a church where people referred to each other as “Brother” and “Sister.” There was “Brother Thompson,” “Sister Jenkins,” “Brother and Sister Johnson,” – you get the idea.
One day I was with a friend at a department store, and we ran into Brother Wallace from church. As I began to make the introduction, I said “This is my friend, Mark, and this is…….” At that moment, I realized that I didn’t know Brother Wallace’s first name.
I also realized right then what a sham the whole thing was. Although we were supposedly brothers and sisters, we didn’t even know each other’s names, much less our struggles, concerns, joys, shortcomings, and the like.
How thankful I am that today there are a handful of fellow journeyers around me. We share our lives with one another. Better yet, we serve a God who desires to be known and to know us intimately. To make a point, He said that He even counts the number of hairs on our heads.
If you and I should ever meet, let’s be sure and learn each other’s first names. Then let’s go on to deeper things. Perhaps one day, you’ll be able to say “I love him like a brother.” And vice versa.
The word “grace” can be described as a situation that arises when a person receives something extra good that he or she does not deserve. It may even seem a bit unfair, such as if someone worked only two hours and got paid for eight. But those on the receiving end of grace never seem to complain… especially when they realize how badly it’s needed.
Biblically, we’re told that God gives grace to his human creation in the form of His love, forgiveness, direction, etc. We’re not worthy of it, but we get it anyway. How is it, then, that a God who claims to be just overlooks people’s shortcomings?
The answer is found in the Bible itself. John tells us that we not only receive grace, we receive “grace upon grace.” Because we don’t deserve grace, God gives us the grace to receive grace. Of course we don’t deserve that either, so He gives us the grace to receive the grace to receive the grace. You get the idea.
Thank God that He has chosen to give me what I don’t deserve, so the grace I certainly don’t deserve can be mine as well.
I was standing in what some call the “sanctuary” a short while before a conventional worship service. Suddenly, the two large multi-media screens at the front of the room displayed a countdown, beginning with five minutes. The graphics were quite modern. High tech accompanying music came through the sound system.
“What’s that all about?” I asked someone who looked like they would know. “It tells us how long before church starts,” was the reply.
Looking around, I paid closer attention to what was going on. People were chatting about who knows what. Some of the conversations were no doubt small talk, while others might have been more in-depth. Soon, such attempts at forming relationships would be replaced by mere form with little substance. (At least that’s my opinion, and of course I could be wrong.)
If the Christian life is about people loving God and one another, then – to my thinking – the clock showed how much time was left before church stopped, rather than started. I walked away kind of sad.
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